Paul Martin has wrestled the federal deficit to the ground. All very well and good. It's about time we started to live within our means.

The bad news is the deficit is a mere mouse compared with the elephant that is the debt -- $580 billion dollars the last time we looked -- and about 40 per cent of that to foreign investors.

Though Martin hopes that a growing economy will by itself reduce the deficit by as much as $9 billion, he committed nothing in last week's budget to paying it off. Just ask Southeast Asia how good economic forecasts can be. Once the darling of corporate boardrooms -- much the way the NWT was not so long ago -- their bottom lines are now perilously close to the proverbial toilet.

Martin did promise to use whatever's left of a $3-billion contingency fund at the end of each of the next couple of years for debt reduction. In the event of something akin to last year's Manitoba floods or the recent Central Canada ice storm, that contingency fund could easily be drained.

Even if the entire fund is diverted to the debt, it would still take 290 years before Canada's in the black again.

The North often found itself in trouble during the panic-stricken years of the 1980s when everyone was trying to do something about the deficit and debt. But it's far too early to start hoping for a windfall from Ottawa.

Proposals from various quarters to increase spending in light of the balanced budget are premature.

Federal transfer payments are still below what they used to be, and with the overenthusiastic Reform Party and chambers of commerce talking about cutting taxes, there is no guarantee that spending will rise anytime soon.

So don't get out the champagne just yet. Things are getting better, but there's a long way to go yet.

We can't remember exactly when, but someone in Quebec -- we don't really care who -- made noises recently about taking Sanikiluaq with them should separatists there ever realize their dream. Yeah, right.

Such talk only serves to inflame federalists in the North who want no part in destroying the country and casts the sanity of the advocates into doubt.

All the same, its reassuring to hear the NWT's politicians soundly dump on the idea. How many separatists do Quebecers think live on the Belcher Islands? We'll take a wild stab in the dark and say "none."

Hands off, Quebec. The islands belong to Nunavut.

One of the ongoing tragedies that needs to be reconciled in the North is the displacement of people from their ancestral lands.

As David Giroux (see page 3) is finding out, the road home is long and twisted. Undoing the events of history is hard work. The federal government, with whom the jurisdiction lies, has in place a process that is time-consuming, to say the least.

If the former residents of the Rocher River area are lucky, they will get the support they need from the people in Fort Resolution. You can go home again, but only with a little help from your friends.